Page 7

Caleb

“ W e are going to be there in five minutes,” my cousin Theo tells me when I pick up the phone.

He was my right-hand man when I was back home.

I mean he was technically my right-hand man since we were in diapers, but we lived two hours away from each other.

Until he decided to move near me after college.

Ever since, we’ve been attached at the hip.

When I decided to move here, he thought about coming with me, but he wasn’t sure just yet.

In the past couple of months, he’s been back here every other week to help me, and I know this job is perfect for him.

It’ll keep him in town long enough to allow him to make the biggest leap and come join me.

Or at least that is what I’m hoping for.

“Sounds good,” I say, getting into my truck and putting on my aviator sunglasses. The sun is so bright today with not a cloud in the sky. “I should be there at the same time, maybe a couple of minutes later.”

“We’ll start to unload things until you get there.” This is why I need him to be here and working with me. He would do things without me telling him to do it. Also, he’s the only one who would be able to tell me to my face that things can’t be done like I think they can.

“See you then.” I disconnect the phone and pull out of my driveway before making my way over to Sierra’s house.

My head goes back to seeing her at the bar, sitting there with Lilah with her hair tucked behind her ear.

I stood at the bar and tried not to look over at her when Brock was talking to me, but I pretty much failed miserably when he said, “Are you fucking listening to a word I’m saying?

” While he was going on and on to me about the crane I needed for the roof of the barn, I should have been paying attention to what he was saying.

Instead, my head was in the clouds, thinking about the woman sitting not too far away from me.

I tried to stay away from her, but when everyone was chitchatting at the bar, I made the mistake of going over and sitting down with her.

I told myself I was doing it so I could update her that we would be starting on her house.

In reality, I just wanted to talk to her.

She was standoffish right off the bat. Totally different from when I met her at her house a couple of hours before.

I thought there was a flirty vibe at her house, but at the bar, it was a straight this-is-never-going-to-happen vibe.

Now I’m pulling up right behind Theo’s truck as I see him, Frankie, and Nino unloading all their equipment.

Frankie and Nino have been with us for a couple of months and are young, so going out of town is a treat for them.

I grab my phone and the keys before jumping out.

“Hey,” I say to Frankie, who is grabbing his tool belt in one hand and his toolbox in another.

“No one is here yet. Door is locked,” he explains, then looks back at the house. “Is this place even safe for us to be working in?”

I look up at the house. “She looks worse than she is,” I tell him, and he nods, walking away as Theo comes to stand next to me.

“I don’t know what the fuck you just signed us up for,” Theo accuses, just as a car parks behind my truck, “but you owe us big-time.”

I look over, seeing the car door open. One brown high-heeled boot comes out of the car before she steps out, closing the driver’s side door while I take in her whole outfit.

She’s wearing black jeans with a thick, loose-knit, long-sleeved brown sweater that goes past her hips but is tucked in on one side.

The sleeves look like they are rolled twice.

She looks at me before coming to me, the sound of her heels getting louder as she gets closer.

“Morning,” I greet with a smile, and she turns to look at the guys waiting at the front door.

“Am I late?” she asks, pressing the button on her phone and seeing it’s a bit before eight. “I thought you said that you start at eight.”

“No,” I tell her, wanting to get closer to her and see if her lips are as soft as they look. The wind blows her blond hair in front of her face, and she turns her head to get it away from her. “The guys just got here.”

“Okay,” she replies. “Do I leave you the key?”

“That depends,” I say, and she looks up at me.

“On?”

“If you trust me or not?”

“I don’t know you well enough to answer that question.” She doesn’t miss a beat answering my question. I don’t know why it suddenly feels like we aren’t talking about the house but about something else.

“Well, you can either come here every morning at eight to let us in and then come by to lock up”—I look back over at the guys now standing together talking—“or you can leave me the key, and I can let them in and out.”

“I’m leaving as soon as we are done here,” she shares, and I have the sudden urge to ask her where she’s going. “I’ll be back next week.”

“For good?” It’s so wrong for me to ask her this and so unprofessional. There is no reason for me to know this answer, yet I can’t help but ask it.

“That’s the plan.” She smiles, pulling the key from her back pocket and holding it out to me.

I reach out and grab the key from her hand, my fingers grazing hers.

I want to let them linger, but she pulls it away quickly.

“If you need anything”—she tucks her hands in her back pockets—“you can call me.”

I tap the key in my hand, trying to prolong our conversation. “Oh, I will,” I assure her as she dips her head and turns to walk away. “Drive safe, yeah?” I tell her, and she opens her door and gets in without saying anything else.

I watch her drive away before I make my way over to the door. “Fucking finally,” Theo grouses. “I was wondering if we would have to disappear in a puff of smoke while you were doing the mating dance.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” I retort, walking to the door and sliding the key in.

“I’m talking about you looking like you were going to pounce on her.” Theo laughs. “And she was looking like she was going to stab you in the eye if you did anything.”

“How could you know that from here?” I unlock the door and push it open.

“The whole time you were talking to her, you didn’t move, not an inch,” he elaborates, picking up his stuff to follow me inside. “Jesus Christ.” He looks around. “You fucking lied.” He drops his stuff by his feet and the noise echoes in the empty house.

“How?” I put my hands on my hips and look around, knowing exactly why he’s freaking out. I might have fudged a little bit when he asked me about the house. A smidgen.

“A little work,” he scoffs, taking a look around. “A little work?”

“Do you think I would have called you all the way from home if it was a little job?” I turn to walk out to grab my own tools. “That was your first mistake.” I shake my head. “It’s like you don’t even know me anymore.”

“You are totally right,” Theo grumbles. “I should never, ever trust what you say. A little. A little my ass.”

“Didn’t you call me the other day asking me…” I remind him. “No, begging me to let you come back here?” He rolls his eyes, walking to the stairs. “The stairs need to be reinforced before anything,” I tell him. “The wood is in the back of my truck.”

The three of them groan, putting down their things before following me out to my truck.

Each of them takes a plank of wood before the trailer gets here with the tools we’ll need for this job.

Dominic parks the truck with the trailer in the driveway.

“Good morning, boys!” he hollers, opening the back of the trailer.

We help unload the tools we need, taking the table saw first, putting it in the living room, and walking to grab a couple of other tools.

By the time I walk back in, Theo already has five pieces of wood cut for the steps while Frankie is nailing them in.

I walk back out, seeing Dominic taking the last of the tools out, when my phone rings, and I look down, seeing it’s Mikaela. “Hey,” I say, putting it to my ear, “I’m unloading?—”

“Okay, I’ll make it fast,” she cuts in. “I hired a new one today. His name is Owen. He comes from the Cartwright crew, so he has experience.”

“That sounds promising. Send him to work with David for now.” I mention the guy I hired when I got into town.

He’s been with me the longest and is almost finished doing a remodel.

“He will assess him and let me know. They are starting a small job tomorrow that David was going to do by himself but now with the extra hand he’ll be able to really see what he can do. ”

“Already done. Also got the quote for the house on Preston Street.”

“Yeah, and?”

She whistles out and I can hear the creak from her chair that she’s in. “It’s pretty fucking steep.”

“Send it over to me so I can check it out, and I’ll call and discuss it with her,” I tell her, and she snickers.

“Since when do you call clients to discuss things with them?”

“Are we done?” I ask, and she doesn’t bother answering me. Instead, she hangs up on me.

I get back inside, and they’re already working upstairs.

Walking up, we decide to start in the bathroom since it will be the most work to demolish.

The dumpster arrives as soon as we rip out the toilet bowl.

“That tub,” Theo says, “is impressive. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a gold tub before.

” He laughs. “I’m going with we are tossing this shit out and not keeping it. ”

“We are tossing that shit out,” I tell him right before he takes the hammer and demolishes it.

I take a picture of the before and after while the electrician comes in and starts opening the walls in the bathroom to see what is inside. I don’t see the time click by, and when I walk out of the house with Theo beside me, both of us are covered in white dust. “Where are you staying?” I ask.

“Got a house not too far from here,” he answers. “Renting it for a month.”

“You could stay with me,” I tell him, and he shakes his head.

“What if I want to bang a girl?” I stop in the middle of the street and laugh.

“What girl?” I look around. “Where are you finding this girl to bang?”

“I don’t know, but if I do find her, I want options, and I don’t want her to feel uncomfortable about my roommate hearing her while I’m banging her brains out.”

“You are such a romantic,” I joke with him as he flips me the bird getting into his truck. Frankie and Nino are long gone. The two of them are staying at the hotel close to the highway.

I get in my own truck, head home, and take off my boots in the mudroom before making my way to my bedroom to take a shower.

I put on shorts, then head to the kitchen and grab a beer before I look at what to cook for dinner.

My options are either a frozen pizza or frozen burgers.

I opt for the pizza, putting it in the oven and then taking my phone out to check my emails.

I spot the quote at the top and open it before I dial her number. The phone rings once before she answers it. “Sierra Davidson.” I can’t help but smile when I hear her voice.

“Sierra Davidson,” I repeat her name, “it’s Caleb Walker.” I take a pull of the beer, leaning back on the counter.

“Caleb,” she says my name, shocked, “is everything okay?”

“Yeah, I was calling to discuss a couple of things with you.” And to ask you why you are moving to town. How long are you going to stay? Also, what is it going to take for you to go out with me?

“Oh, okay.” She hesitates, and I hear her moving on her side of the phone.

“Did I catch you at the wrong time?” I ask, but what I want to ask is “What are you doing?” Is she on the couch watching television? What type of shows does she watch?

“No, it’s fine.” She doesn’t give me anything. “What can I help you with?”

“I wanted to let you know that we’ve demolished the bathroom.” I tell her everything we did today. “The electrician is going to start downstairs tomorrow to see what he’s working with, but he thinks you should rewire the whole thing.”

“Is it safer to do that?” she asks, her tone worried.

“I would if I were you,” I answer her honestly. “We don’t know how old the wiring is, but we can assume it’s from when they built the house. It’s probably not even up to code.”

“So we’ll do it. Do you need me to send you guys a deposit or anything?”

“I’m going to look over the quote and see what I can do on my end,” I tell her. “You can also do this in sections if it’s too much for you.”

“Send it over. I’ll take a look at it, but I’m thinking we do everything at the same time and get it over with.”

“Sounds good,” I reply and then don’t say anything else.

“Is that all?” she asks me after thirty seconds of silence.

“Yeah,” I say even though that isn’t all. I want to spend time on the phone talking to her. “That’s it.”

“Thanks for calling, Caleb.” She hangs up the phone, and I look down at it.

“What the fuck are you doing?” I ask myself because there is no one here but me.

“You should focus on growing your business, not the new girl moving to town.” I take another pull of my beer.

“Send her the email and move on. She’s obviously not interested in you.

” I look to the side when the oven beeps, smirking when I think of her.

“She’s not interested in you yet.” I smirk.

“Challenge accepted, Sierra. Challenge fucking accepted.”